School under siege

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Laroque and its Primary School, Elisée Maury, have hit the headlines. And not just here. Just look at today’s Guardian. Not a week into the new term, and a newly appointed teacher has been ordered to quit her post here. Not sacked, but transferred to a school nearly 2 hours drive away. Why? 50 children were expected to return to school at the beginning of term. In the event, 47 turned up. The parents of the others had apparently found jobs elsewhere and moved away during the summer. Without those three extra children, the school’s not entitled to three teachers. Teachers here are civil servants, appointed centrally. Neither the local council nor the school itself has any influence on appointments, or on how the school uses its teaching budget.

But Caroline Sanchez, the teacher in question, won’t be leaving at all, if the locals get their way. By the end of Tuesday, an action committee of parents and councillors had taken all three teachers at the school hostage, with their consent, in the school gym. And there they stayed overnight and the next day. They had a barbecue with food donated by local shops and families, and beds were brought in for them. There’s no school here on Wednesdays, but by the end of that day, things were hotting up.

We realized this when crowds started to gather in the car park behind our house, which backs onto the Mairie.

Ten or more police cars, some with military personnel inside arrived. They were there to block off the car park, guard the school and surrounding streets, but as the events were peaceful if noisy, they looked very bored indeed. As well as these ‘forces de l’ordre’, there were reporters from national newspapers and TV. Parents. Councillors. Bystanders like us (for once we haven’t got involved). The Vice President of the Regional Education Committee himself turned up and made offers that were dismissed as derisory. During the course of the evening, the teachers were escorted to their homes under police guard.

It would all have been so different in England. A few years ago, in Sheffield, my son’s first teacher, a fantastic woman, but on a temporary contract, was given the push on the last day of term. We mums and dads all kept in touch and put together a polite and well-argued letter that every single parent signed. We sent it off. It worked. But it’s impossible to imagine such a tame approach even being considered here. Action on the streets, played out with as much publicity and noise as possible, is the French way of getting things changed.

And now, the action is hotting up again. 20 schools in the region are joining in, because they have similar problems of their own. The mayor of nearby Lavelanet has already denounced the Schools Inspector for having ordered the closure of a class at one of the town’s schools.

On Friday, when the schools close there at 4.15, leaflets will be distributed deploring the ‘abandonment of this area by the State’. At 4.30, a siren will sound, and by order of the mayor, all the access roads to the town will be blocked as the townspeople stand vigil at the various entrances to the town. All the shops will be asked to close their shutters to symbolize a ‘dead town’. Laroque will have a lower key version of the same protest.

People here feel keenly that central government ignores the Ariege, ‘la fin fond du monde’. The textile industry that has been one of its main reasons for being over the last few centuries has collapsed in the last 20 years. So there’s high unemployment, which has led to the desertification of towns like Laroque and Lavelanet. Nobody in Paris, say the locals, either knows or cares. Both Laroque and Lavelanet have lost about a third of their populations as young people leave to find work. Shops close. Other businesses fold. Locals demand that central government offer practical help, and show some understanding of what the local issues are. At the moment, they feel neglected, and see what is happening to their children as evidence that, as far as Paris is concerned, this is a forgotten part of the world.

We don’t know how this story will continue. Watch this space.

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Photos

As are banners like this
This one's on the school railings, but there are more on each of the roundabouts going through the town